Burning Oracle (Wesleyan Poetry) - Softcover

Sandra Simonds

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0819502162 ISBN 13: 9780819502162

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press, 2026

Synopsis

A fierce, visionary book-length poem /> />Burning Oracle is a visionary, book-length poem told from the fractures of a world on fire where myth, memory, and contemporary life collide. Cassandra—seer, mother, survivor—wanders through forests of digital noise and historical trauma, her voice both ancient and urgently new. At the heart of the poem is a pilgrimage to the grave of poet Paul Celan where she traces personal loss within the wider context of inherited trauma—particularly the Holocaust—and seeks meaning in the act of remembering. As floods rise and fires rage, the personal and historical ignite a mythic voice. Through the commonplace of stained dresses, shattered screens, and supermarket aisles, Cassandra encounters figures like Goya, Reynard the fox, and Celan himself, weaving their stories into an intertextual, image-rich landscape. Burning Oracle is a feminist reckoning, a personal mythography, and a testament to the power of poetry to animate the archive of history, memory, and everyday life. /> />[sample poem] /> />* />From II /> />No source, my Seine, />a German one instead, />Sixteen & reading Hölderlin's />Der Rhein at the foot of a massive />statue of Goethe and Schiller. />Stupid anorexic American girl. />But not really American. />And not really French. />And not really Turkish. />And not really Syrian. />And not really Spanish. />And the tourists at the camp. /> Was I a tourist? />Squeal of the cassette /> tape rewinding />Pink Floyd's The Wall. />Ah, when you speak German, /> no one can tell />you're American. When you speak /> English no one can tell />you're French. Too sick to go on. /> Anne of Green Gables Figurines. />I'm always too sick /> to go on, that's />my charm—a gray />ruin turned maroon />turned black. /> />* /> />It is easier to go mad, />Francisco says, />than one might think. /> />Easy to lose things. />People too. />Perhaps too easy. />Step inside />and you may not />come back. /> />He listed the colors he liked: />Black. />Black. />Black. />Black. />He told himself />to stay inside the painting /> of the chartreuse river, /> stay inside, Reader, /> and he found his arms /> roping and looping /> into Cassandra /> holding a tray /> of dead pigeons.

About this title

About the Author

SANDRA SIMONDS is professor of English [SS2] and Humanities at Thomas University and the author of eight collections of poetry, most recently, Triptychs (Wave Books, November 2022). Her poetry, criticism, and creative nonfiction have been published in the New Yorker, The New York Times, Best American Poetry, Poetry, American Poetry Review, Chicago Review, Granta, Boston Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere.

Edition details

• Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0819502162
• ISBN 13: 9780819502162
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 88